In programming project management terms, the technique of planning perfectly so that one can write the whole story correctly in the first draft is the “Waterfall Method”, and is generally considered ineffective. At the opposite extreme, pure discovery writing is probably called “Hacking” and the results can produce great things fast, or can produce a dreadful inconsistent mess fast, depending on skills and ability. In between are various types of iterative methods, where one plans a bit, then writes a bit, and repeats, being prepared to rewrite existing parts to make it fit together.

Something I haven’t heard about is anything equivalent to pure prototyping. In literature terms it would be the writing of short pieces to get the feel of characters, scenes, and the world, to see how they can be made to work (if at all), but never incorporating those pieces into the final work. Does anyone do this? Is it any good?

(Now I am curious what the results of transferring other programming practices would be, like pair programming, or XP. )

I’ve started, and stopped and then started, again, rewrote the first chapter, then the next four. When I got to eight, I changed from first person to third, added and subtracted, created maps wall to wall, diagrams and flow charts, religions and philosophy. Now, 2 years later, and 150,000 words into the novel, it appears that I’ve written only half.

My main character – there may be others hiding – just had one of those defining moments, where paths diverge, friendships deepen or tear, and things hidden are revealed, leaving only more questions. The questions in turn cause me to deepen the story, meanwhile other stories are writing themselves out in my head – extentions like a giant squid’s tentacles.

How do you know when one book 1 of a series has been completed, and it is time to move on to number 2? Or, do you just write the series as 1 complete book, and then just break it up afterwards? At this point, I think this first book will be about 250,000 words plus, before I can bring it to a pause or end it suspended.

Thanks,

Alan

http://mbarker.livejournal.com/101300.html

The road block I faced with writing for over twenty years was that I thought I was an outliner. I could never seem to get beyond the first three chapters. NaNoWriMo taught me that I’m a hard-core discovery writer. Now when I start a book, I have no idea how it will end or what the world is like. And that bugs the heck out of the concrete-sequential part of my personality. I’ve also been cursed with the perfectionist gene, but I’ve learned that I have to shut it off, or I’ll get nowhere. I just plow ahead and keep telling myself to “fix it in the mix.”

I also thought of the famous Stephen Covey analogy: airplanes are off course 90% of the time but they still reach their destination. That sounds like the same percentage of stuff I have to throw away.

Hee. I’ve been listening to you guys’ podcasts for a long time now, but never got to commenting. I’m one of your biggest fans, I promise ;D I have a bunch of these things on my iPod.

I’m trying to find the happy medium between outlining and winging it. I have this story I thought up in my freshman year of high school or so titled “Saving A. Miracle”, and the first time I tried to write it, I just went for it without outlining anything, just the ideas in my head. Fail. Maybe six months later I decided to take another go at it, but this time I outlined and outlined and outlined so much that it was boring to write. Fail T-T So, like I said, I’m searching for that happy medium.

The story I’m focused on right now is called “Time is of the Essence”. It’s giving me a lot of trouble, I’m tellin’ ya. I can’t figure out how to begin it. It’s just such a fantastic story idea that I don’t wanna mess it up. Perhaps I’m being too delicate.

<3 you guys

-Sam

I have a habit of doing a chapter in a few weeks, spending 2-3 weeks world building and retconning (spl?), and then writing the next one. It’s a really slow sort of hybrid process.

I don’t know. Sounds like Tolkien to me

I actually *have* started writing. It’s just that I have a habit of doing a chapter in a few weeks, spending 2-3 weeks world building and retconning (spl?), and then writing the next one. It’s a really slow sort of hybrid process. So I’m better than I sound on word count, I’m at 20K, from the last six months or so of writing, with at least triple that count in story bible. If I didn’t write anything, my writing group would shame me.

Jumping in on the yammering in the heads of Howard and Jake and the like, I think I have a sort of similar process but it’s more cinematic in nature. I find that when I go to bed at night I close my eyes and run through the scene I’m working on in my head and try to picture it all happening like a movie. At first, it seems like a silent film and I can see the actions and events of what happens but as I keep ‘working’ on it the dialogue and thoughts of my characters become more clear. Then I’m ready to write that scene.

…is that insane? Or do other people find that works for them too?

This was the fastest listen of all the podcasts so far. I listened to it twice in a row at first because I was sure I had to have skipped something it felt so fast, but nope, it was 15 minutes, it just felt like 5.
Great job guys. You had me laughing and learning through the whole thing.